“LIGHTNING.”

From a painting.

[Larger image] (206 kB)

Her measurements were:—

Tonnage(builders)2096 tons.
(register)1468 „
(burthen)3500 „
Length 244 feet.
Beam 44 „
Depth 23 „
Dead rise at half-floor 20 inches.

Her poop was 92 feet long and her saloon 86 feet, whilst she had 8 feet under the beams in her ’tween decks, a most unusual height for those days.

With regard to design, she was one of the sharpest ships ever launched. Her model is thus described by Captain H. H. Clark:—“She had long, concave water-lines and at her load displacement line a cord from her cut-water to just abaft the fore rigging showed a concavity of 16 inches. Her stem raked boldly forward, the lines of the bow gradually becoming convex and blending with the sheer line and cut-water, while the only ornament was a beautiful full-length figure of a young woman holding a golden thunderbolt in her outstretched hand, the flowing white drapery of her graceful form and her streaming hair completing the fair and noble outline of the bow.

“The after-body was long and clean, though fuller than the bow, while the stern was semi-elliptical in form, with the plank sheer moulding for its base, and was ornamented with gilded carved work, though this really added nothing to the beauty of the strong sweeping outline of her hull.”

The Lightning’s spar and rigging measurements were tremendous:—